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TYCO INTL. LAUNCHES AD CAMPAIGN TO REBUILD IMAGE

New Management's Effort Comes in Wake of Worldwide Scandal

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Under new management and emerging from one of the highest-profile corporate scandals of the last half-century, Tyco International is launching its first corporate branding ad campaign in recent memory.

Tyco International is the world's largest marketer of fire-protection and building security systems.

Rebuilding a tattered image
Developed by the Boston office of Interpublic Group of Cos.' Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, the campaign continues the new management's efforts to rebuild the tattered image of the company, whose former CEO and chief financial officer in 2002 were accused of bilking the company of more than $600 million. Testimony heard at the trail, which grabbed headlines worldwide, alleged former CEO Dennis Kozlowski used company funds to finance an extravagant lifestyle that included a $16.8 million Manhattan apartment with accoutrements such as a $6,000 shower curtain and a $4 million Renoir.

The revelations, which included charges that Mr. Kozlowki spent $2 million to throw a birthday party for his wife in Sardinia, devastated both the giant corporation's reputation as well as it stock value.

The New York trial ended in a deadlock, and Mr. Kozlowski, along will former CFO Mark Swartz, will be retried in January -- an

One of the new Tyco TV spots is called 'Anthem' and provides an overview of the company's broad product and service lines.

event likely to generate new waves of negative publicity.

Fire protection and security
Tyco is the world's leading marketer of fire protection and building security systems and has other units that make industrial flow control products, sprinkler systems and medical equipment. It has revenue of more than $36 billion a year and employs more than 250,000 people around the globe.

Tyco's vice president of advertising, Jim Harman, part of the new management team installed to turn around the company's image, in an interview said the impending retrial has nothing to do with the timing of the company's new advertising push. He also declined to disclose spending on the campaign.

"Because of what's gone on in the last couple years, there's a gap between any number of constituencies' perceptions and the reality of the company," he said. "This is not the kind of company you've been reading about over the last couple years. Those guys are out of the company and that's going to be taken care of on the legal side. This has always been a sound company that has a great portfolio of businesses."

Combating confusion
Upcoming TV spots represent a continuation of a branding effort that began this summer. In June, Tyco launched a print campaign highlighting the variety of products it makes in order to combat the confusion around the company, some on the part of its own employees.

"It's not that unusual with big, multi-industry conglomerates," Mr. Harman, a veteran of General Electric Co., said of that confusion. In expanding the media approach from print to TV, Tyco remains focused on a targeted audience of customers, employees, investors and opinion leaders, he said.

One branding expert said turning to TV makes perfect sense, especially given the approaching retrial. "They have a new cast there and Wall Street is looking favorably on them, " said Allen Adamson, managing director of WPP Group's Landor Associates, New York. "[The trial] makes it only that much more important to get out there with a new story and really turn up the volume."